Well gentlemen, I certainly know more than I did about this before I asked my questions. There seems to be some pretty strong opinions on the different packages, something like the debates I get into regarding the Chinese/Japanese HTs.

But ... I have read the views and I will certainly keep an open mind and try the DX labs and the others mentioned, and form my own opinions. Heck I don't even have an HF setup yet, but I want to be ahead of the game, which is why I'm trying to learn about all the new ways of doing things in ham radio.

Anyone who has been around eham for a while knows that the reviews do not necessarily mean anything. However let us use your Flawed Logic for a moment.

ACLog has 157 reviews at 4.8. By your Logic this means ACLog is a much better logger than DxLabs. ACLog is not Free. Ham ops have to actually pay $$ for ACLog. This gives even more credit to ACLog being a better logger since DXLabs is free. DxLabs easliy loses the popularity race using your standard of eham reviews.

So is ACLog better than DXLabs? Anyone who has tried both knows the answer to that. Sorry Dave, Being popular does not make a great logger. If a logger is Free it also distorts popularity as free wins the love of a lot of Hams.

I have not yet written a eham review of DXLabs. Several years ago I did write one for ACLog. Perhaps I will write a review of DxLabs and lower your 4.8 rating a little.

Maybe I will make up a few eham aliases and use them to write a DXLabs review. Maybe I will get my local ham friends to do the same. My wife doesn't have a eham account yet, she will get one and write a review. Dave, eham reviews mean little, they can be easily manipulated.

Anyone who has been around eham for a while knows that the reviews do not necessarily mean anything.

Being popular does not make a great logger.

And look at HRD. It has nearly 300 reviews with an overall rating of 4.4. But if you look at the "negative" reviews, it seems that most of them are related to the fact that the software that was once free now costs $100, not due to specific functionality issues. If you factor these out, I am pretty sure HRD's ratings will come very close to those of DXLabs.

And look at HRD. It has nearly 300 reviews with an overall rating of 4.4. But if you look at the "negative" reviews, it seems that most of them are related to the fact that the software that was once free now costs $100, not due to specific functionality issues. If you factor these out, I am pretty sure HRD's ratings will come very close to those of DXLabs.

Dxlabs is now free like HRD once was. HRD was extremely popular when it was free. If Dave started charging $100 like HRD what would happen to DXLabs popularity? Does anyone believe it would increase?

Anyone who has been around eham for a while knows that the reviews do not necessarily mean anything.

Those reviews contains many positive statements from users citing DXLab's ease of use, directly contradicting the negative opinion you've been repeatedly posting here. These reviews are not anonymous; anyone interested can contact the author of a review by obtaining their email address from QRZ.com and confirming authenticity.

Maybe I will make up a few eham aliases and use them to write a DXLabs review. Maybe I will get my local ham friends to do the same. My wife doesn't have a eham account yet, she will get one and write a review.

Any reader who hasn't already concluded that you have a rather large axe to grind will now have certainly reached this conclusion.

Your post will make it easy for the eHam person responsible for reviews to properly deal with your threat.

And look at HRD. It has nearly 300 reviews with an overall rating of 4.4. But if you look at the "negative" reviews, it seems that most of them are related to the fact that the software that was once free now costs $100, not due to specific functionality issues. If you factor these out, I am pretty sure HRD's ratings will come very close to those of DXLabs.

Dxlabs is now free like HRD once was. HRD was extremely popular when it was free. If Dave started charging $100 like HRD what would happen to DXLabs popularity? Does anyone believe it would increase?

DXLab has always been free, and will always be free. As I posted earlier, I enjoy developing software in collaboration with users, and I enjoy exploring new software engineering techniques in a hand-on manner. I also enjoy building software that improves my effectiveness as a DXer, along with the effectiveness of every other DXer who employs it.

Your post will make it easy for the eHam person responsible for reviews to properly deal with your threat.

Oh Dear, Dave you need to chill out and recognize when someone is pulling your chain, AKA tongue in cheek.

You are correct I did post a Review of DxLabs, I apologize for my memory failure. I did give DXLabs a good 3.0, I must have been feeling kind that day.

Dave I have NO AXE to grind. I am merely tired of you constantly pushing and advertising your DXLabs in every logger/digital thread. I think it is about time someone gave a very different view on DXlabs, one that is shared by many Hams.

I will make you a deal. Stop ramming DXlabs down the newbies throat every chance you get and I will go away. Without you to debate Dave, there will be no discussion from me. I know you will not take this deal and continue to bore everyone with your posting of DXlabs Brochure every chance you get. It is who you are Dave. You need to have the last word....

Your post will make it easy for the eHam person responsible for reviews to properly deal with your threat.

Dave I have NO AXE to grind. I am merely tired of you constantly pushing and advertising your DXLabs in every logger/digital thread. I think it is about time someone gave a very different view on DXlabs, one that is shared by many Hams.

There are 111 reviews of DXLab posted in the eHam Logging Software review forum. Of these, 104 (94%) give DXLab a rating of 5. There are 2 reviews with a rating of 4, and a total of 5 reviews with a rating of 3 or lower (including your review).

Of these, 104 (94%) give DXLab a rating of 5. There are 2 reviews with a rating of 4, and a total of 5 reviews with a rating of 3 or lower (including your review).

Dave when do you have time to program, arguing with me and figuring all this out takes a lot of your time. Let us do this review statistic thing fairly as you distort the facts about popularity doing only the DXLabs review statistics So why don't you do a check on AClog review popularity and give us a run down on the statistics of that logger. It is after all more popular than DXLabs and it cost $$$ which gives it a handicap in the popularity race.

Let us REALLY be fair Dave. Here is what what you need to do Dave. Take the Top 25 reviewed Loggers. There actually are more loggers than 25 but I don't want to waste too much of your time. Total up the review count. Most of the review Totals are 4.0 or higher so we can assume Hams like these loggers. Now deduct 111 from the Total.This is DXLabs reviews. I will even let you deduct the LOTW total which is 483. This is because it is not a real Software Logger. I really want to be fair to DXLabs. The result will be hams that prefer loggers other than DXlabs. How many Dave? Give us the percentage too.

I would do all this for you but people would probably think I would cheat and I am not too good at math anyway. I am very interested in how many hams are not reviewing DXLabs and are quite happy with other loggers.

You probably have noticed that unlike you I have not promoted one logger over another. I have not said too much about the logger I use = CommCat. But since every thing you post is an veiled advertisement for DxLabs. Let me give CommCat a plug

Commcat has a perfect score of 5.0 with 30 reviews. This means 100% of the reviewers think Commcat is great , which it is. Commcat also costs $50 which makes it harder to compete against freebies like DXLabs. Hams love free and free will always win a popularity contest against $$$$. Popularity has nothing to do with quality especially if something is free.

We await your next post and DxLabs advertisement Dave. Actually I am helping you out because you are getting much more opportunity to push and advertise DXLabs arguing with me.

Of these, 104 (94%) give DXLab a rating of 5. There are 2 reviews with a rating of 4, and a total of 5 reviews with a rating of 3 or lower (including your review).

Dave when do you have time to program, arguing with me and figuring all this out takes a lot of your time. Let us do this review statistic thing fairly as you distort the facts about popularity doing only the DXLabs review statistics.

I made no claim regarding DXLab's popularity. I cited the eHam reviews to demonstrate that your low opinion of DXLab is that of a small minority.

I took a look at the Commcat demo video on their website. All I can say is - Wow! That thing looks incredibly capable and complicated! It has so much I don't know if I'd be too bogged down in the details. You know how some programs have two menu systems - normal and advanced? I think I need normal for the time being. But remember the last time I logged a contact was in the 1970's, in a paper logbook, and then I got a QSL card and licked a stamp and mailed it.

DXLab has always been free, and will always be free. As I posted earlier, I enjoy developing software in collaboration with users, and I enjoy exploring new software engineering techniques in a hand-on manner.

I haven't tried it yet but what can I say to another that develops free software for the community? Seems like a very nice thing to do. So, thanks. For now all I want to do is be able to log contacts on my PC, and then upload them. I'm not going to chase dx or do contests, it's just not relaxing to me.

You are avoiding the issue. My low opinion of DxLabs is shared by Many hams. Do my little math exercise and you will see that DXLabs is shunned by a majority of hams that use other Loggers. Spin all you want. The truth is there for every one to see. DXLabs is FREE for goodness sake. If it was the Greatest DX Logger EVERY ham would be using it, it is after all FREE.

If you do my math exercise on the reviews you would see that the Majority of Hams use a logger other than DXLabs. In Fact ACLog alone beats DXLabs in popularity and it costs $$$.

Low Opinion of DXLabs is shared by the Majority of hams on eham, just go do the math in the review section. After all YOU were the one that first used the Reviews to spotlight DxLabs. Dave this just shows you just are not a fair person. Having talked to you here eham, seen your constant promoting and Spinning of DxLabs I have to confess that I have even a lower opinion of DxLabs than I did before. All because of your attitude.

I told you before you do a real dis-service to DxLabs by your constant actions here on eham, you have proved that over and over.

You are a Telemarketer that will not stop calling. At first a customer may listen to the message. When a Telemarketer calls everyday the customer gets a little annoyed. After a week the customer gets on the no-call list. That does not work so the customer gets a lot angry. Finally he talks to the Telemarketer and asks him to quit calling and giving the same message over and over. The Telemarketer just smiles to himself and keeps on talking. Finally the customer has had enough and gets caller Id and never answers the Telemarketer. The Telemarketer tho is slick, he knows he can sell to this customer, he changes his phone number every time he calls. This way the customer has to answer. And on it goes.

Dave's nonavailability was thoroughly covered in a thread on the DXLabSuite reflector recently. Dave has established a team of (I presume) like-minded software gurus who will continue his work should he be erased tomorrow. Heaven forbid Dave!

Reading thru this thread it seems like there's been some degeneration. I hope not to add to that with my opinion. Moving from paper to a PC, I essentially restarted DXCC and award tracking in 1989 with WJ2O's DOS program. In an effort to free myself completely from DOS (still unresolved) after trying out the available programs I migrated to DX4WIN. It didn't go smoothly, but it went. Happy as a clam, DX4WIN served for a while. Then I noticed it had been a long time since the last update, and I had some issues go unresolved, so I got restless and looked around again. There were many more options available at that time.

After a few trials I thought DXLabSuite looked like the way to go. However this was before the suite's Launcher application (it installs itself and all the rest of the suite applications more or less automatically). I was a bit befuddled by the need to manually integrate the suite, so hung out with DX4WIN a bit longer. Finally biting the bullet I tried the Suite again and by now the Launcher existed. So I've been around the block on award-tracking loggers (contest loggers too, but that's a different story).

And never looked back since. While I don't always agree with Dave's way of doing things, he has the important stuff covered. Like data security, i.e. how safe is my log. Award tracking. Interoperability. Crashworthiness - DXLabSuite never crashes. Windows might expire, and does, but not the Suite. Following a BSOD there's my log, safe and sound. Personally I appreciate the modularity of the Suite because, when I'm setting up something new or recovering from my frequent screwups I can concentrate on just one area and one application.

Like any "new thing" it does take some effort to learn the ropes if the goal is to dig in. On the other hand the Suite can quite effectively use the defaults. The new user can just install it application by application and start logging Q's.

One cannot recommend the Suite without mentioning support. The Suite author AA6YQ is not only a DXer himself, he's always within a day or so of replying to questions. Usually within hours, but he does take vacations and go on DXpeditions. Plus there are a large number of expert users available when Dave's not around. Its the best software support I've ever seen since I began using PC's in about 1980.

73 Art K6XT

Art,

Thanks for clarifying, there is a continued support mechanism in place for the DXLabs suite of programs. That is a win for those who enjoy using DXLabs.

I spent some time looking at the DXLabs suite of programs. It appears to be very extensive and capable suite of programs. However, the GUI for DXLabs gives me a Windows 3.1 flash back. I've been using HRD 6.1 for about a month, and can say I like what they've done with that suite of programs. I find the product is well worth the price.

I get everything I need (logging/rig control/automatic rotor control/grey line-world map/UTC clock/QRZ lookup/DX Cluster/and more) in one single window. I like that tabs are used within, much like many other modern programs I use. I found that the learning curve is very short and have not experience any operating issues or computer issues.

HRD and DXLabs, although competing programs, both are very capable. Whichever suite of programs someone choses to use, I doubt anyone can go wrong using either of those programs.

DXLab has always been free, and will always be free. As I posted earlier, I enjoy developing software in collaboration with users, and I enjoy exploring new software engineering techniques in a hand-on manner.

I haven't tried it yet but what can I say to another that develops free software for the community? Seems like a very nice thing to do. So, thanks. For now all I want to do is be able to log contacts on my PC, and then upload them. I'm not going to chase dx or do contests, it's just not relaxing to me.

That is simple enough to do.

DXLabs suite of software does a ton of stuff; however, (unlike other programs) it is up to you how much of it you want to utilize, and how much of it you want/need on your screen at the same time. That is the beauty of it's modular design.

DXLablauncher is the program used to download/update the rest of the programs. Download that first, then DXKeeper. If all you are wanting to do is log, stop, you're done. That's what I did when I first started using DXLab 5 years ago. I've since added the rest.

Once you have DXKeeper loaded, use the icon to open, you won't need to access DXLauncher again, other than periodically to check for updates. Or download other parts of the DXLab suite of programs.

When you first open DXKeeper, you'll use the "myQTH" tab at the top of the page and the "Config" button to initially setup your log. There may be a step I've forgotten, it has been a while since I first loaded the software, but it is very well documented on the website if I have.

The "Log QSOs" tab is where you enter your qso info. Call, mode, freq, name, comments, etc.....as much or as little info as you want to input. Click the "New" button, enter a call in the box, hit enter, and the start time of the qso is entered, you add the rest. Unless you also have Commander running, in which case the band/mode is also entered for you.

When you have all the info/comment whatever you want entered, click the "Log" button, and the qso is logged. It took longer to type to this point than it does to do it.

As for uploading your qsos, once you have gotten yourself set up with LOTW/Eqsl/ClubLog, the "QSL" tab is where you do the uploading. Clicking that tab shows you the options for where/how you want to qsl. There are a few steps involved in the setup (LOTW/Eqsl), the "QSL Config" button is where that is handled. Pretty much set and forget.

Then your electronic uploads/downloads are just a couple of clicks away. There are a couple of different ways to add qsos to the "QSL Queqe" for upload, again, all very well documented on the website.

The DXLab yahoo group is also a great source of info if you have a question.

If I've made any of this sound complicated, I apologize, it isn't. I'm a self professed computer dummy, and it's easy enough that I can use it.

After using just DXKeeper for a few weeks, I added Commander. Then DXView, Winwarbler, Propview and Spotcollector. I keep them all open, minimized in the taskbar. I prefer having the choice of what is on my screen, when I want it on my screen, where I want it on my screen, if I want it on my screen.

That is one reason, along with many others, why, imo, DXLabs is the best logging software I've used, free or otherwise. DXLabs is free because Dave wants it to be free. He flat refuses donation offers, which I would be more than happy to make. All I can do is say "thanks".

DXLabs is my recommendation for logging software; however, you will need to decide if it is what you want to use.

For what you are saying you want to do, just log qsos and upload, no dx chasing or contests, just about any logging program will most likely do.

It's the "for now all I want to do is......." part where DXLabs will really shine if you decide later on you want to do more than just log qsos.

You sure got that right. I have been telling Telemarketer Dave that his DXLabs GUI needs a LOT of work but Telemarker Dave hears what he wants to hear and sure does not wanna hear about his DxLabs dated GUI, non-intuitive confuser interface.

Stick with HRD if you can afford the $100. It is vastly superior to DXLabs and actually has a colorful modern Windows interface..

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